Profiles in patriotic Project 2025-style capitalism: EPA issues urgent alert about a fetus poison

The WaPo reports about an EPA emergency action:
EPA takes emergency action to stop use of dangerous pesticide

The pesticide, known as DCPA, is known to harm fetuses and “needs to be removed from the market immediately,” an EPA official said

For the first time in 40 years, the Environmental Protection Agency has taken emergency action to stop the use of a pesticide linked to serious health risks for unborn babies.

Tuesday’s emergency order applies to dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate, also known as DCPA or Dacthal, an herbicide used on crops such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and onions. When pregnant farmworkers and others are exposed to the pesticide, their babies can experience changes to fetal thyroid hormone levels, which are linked to low birth weight, impaired brain development, decreased IQ and impaired motor skills later in life.

“DCPA is so dangerous that it needs to be removed from the market immediately,” Michal Freedhoff, assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, said in a statement. “It’s EPA’s job to protect people from exposure to dangerous chemicals. In this case, pregnant women who may never even know they were exposed could give birth to babies that experience irreversible lifelong health problems.”

The sole manufacturer of the pesticide, AMVAC, had sought to avoid the emergency action. The company had voluntarily pulled all DCPA products used on turf, reducing the risks to golfers, athletes and workers who maintain turf fields.

DCPA, a cute but dangerous
little molecule

Wikipedia comments
DCPA was first registered for use in the United States in 1958, for use on turf grasses, for the control of annual grasses such as crabgrass, and certain annual broad-leaved weeds.

Welp, ladies 'n germs, poison squirrels (boys 'n girls), there we have it. The company that made and sold DCPA was probably aware of its toxicity since the 1970s. As we all know, if the Repubs get back in power, Project 2025 has targeted the EPA for elimination as a tyrannical, deep state operation that wants to destroy all companies on the evil socialist road to MAPA!! (Make American Poverty-stricken Again). Sight. Sad face.

In these troubled times, a room mate once told me an inspirational insight that I will never forget:

You're a people
Urination



By Germaine: Concerned about the people and the public interest (since capitalism and Project 2025 aren't concerned about either)

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